Planning Certainty

In this video we explore a creative approach on how to accelerate housing developments in London and how to find places to put this housing. Bermondsey provides a good example of this creativity with Kipling garages. This video comes from our site visit to Bermondsey. Our hosts were Leather Market Joint Management Board (JMB), a tenant management organisation that operates 1500 homes for Southwark Council and Igloo Regeneration Fund.

On 23 June 2016, we hosted the final conference of our HEIF 5 project on accelerating housing production in London. Over the last 18 months LSE London has been discussing how to accelerate the supply of new housing in London with experts from government, industry and academia. We are now finalising our findings and recommendations about how the Mayor’s housing goals might most effectively be supported, both immediately and over the longer term…. Read More

On 16 May LSE London hosted a roundtable on ‘building relationships between the Mayor and GLA and central and local government’. Attendees included participants from local authorities, the GLA, think tanks and central government and the discussion centred on the relative powers of the Mayor, the boroughs and central government and how these might be harnessed to help achieve the new Mayor’s housing objectives. The most positive finding was that a great… Read More

Is the British planning system flexible, practical and site-specific? Or could it be more accurately described as erratic, inconsistent, costly and time-consuming? As part of our project on Accelerating Housing Production in London, on 9 March LSE London hosted a roundtable to discuss the uncertainty inherent in our negotiation-based system and to ask what a more certain system might look like, and whether it would lead to more homes being built in… Read More

Over the last 18 months, LSE London has been discussing with experts from government, industry and academia about how to accelerate the supply of new housing in London. We now have a new Mayor with the remit to double the housing output in London and to ensure that Londoners are the ones that benefit. There are enormous challenges. What have been rather wide sweeping policy commitments have to be turned into detailed implementation… Read More

Ian Gordon says that whoever becomes the next mayor must recognise the need to work with London’s neighbours to tackle the region’s housing shortages. What role does the green belt can the green belt play in addressing London’s housing crisis? The original blog entry appeared in Centre for Cities. Click here to read the entire blog. ‘Ahead of the election on 5th May, the various London mayoral candidates have been keen to emphasise… Read More

Christine Whitehead claims that some of the election promises made by Khan and Goldsmith in the London mayoral race may make building homes more difficult. Once the mayor has been elected many of the electoral promises will need to be turned into implementable policies. Whitehead comments on what may be workable within the new mayor’s first term. The original blog entry appeared in Centre for Cities. Click here to read the entire… Read More

On Thursday 28 January, 2016, LSE London and London Chamber of Commerce & Industry co-hosted the first mayoral hustings titled ‘Why I should be Mayor of London Tomorrow’, a public debate amongst the candidates from main political parties. The event was arranged by London Tomorrow, a thought leadership initiative to lay out thoughts seeking to inform and influence local politicians on issues concerning London. Tony Travers introduced the event noting that this… Read More

LSE London awarded a year-long HEIF5 project titled, Accelerating housing production in London. See our October newsletter with all the latest details. The following is a project description: London faces a significant housing crisis that threatens both its social sustainability and its long-term economic stability. Last year (2014-15), our HEIF5 project, Addressing the Supply Crisis focused on the implications of the national election debate for London; identified barriers to supply specific to the capital and pointed to where… Read More